
aass_2AAA 

Book_A2^_ 



t 



Address of 

The President of the 

United States 

Delivered at a Joint Session of 
The Two Houses of Congress 

April 2, 1917 




PUBLISHED BY EDWARD J. CLODE 
GROSSET& DUNLAP. DISTRIBUTORS 



ADDRESS 



Address 



Gentlemen of the Congress : 

I HAVE called the Congress 
into extraordinary session be- 
cause there are serious, very 
serious, choices of policy to be 
made and made immediately, 
which it was neither right nor 
constitutionally permissible that 
I should assume the responsibility 
of making. 

On the third of February last 
I officially laid before you the 
extraordinary announcement of 
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Address of The President 

the Imperial German Govern- 
ment that on and after the first 
day of February it was its purpose 
to put aside all restraints of law 
or of humeinity and use its sub- 
marines to sink every vessel that 
sought to approach either the 
ports of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, or the western coasts of 
Europe, or any of the ports con- 
trolled by the enemies of Germany 
within the Mediterranean. That 
had seemed to be the object of 
the German submarine warfare 
earlier in the war, but since April 
of last year the Imperial Govern- 
ment had somewhat restrained 
the commanders of its undersea 
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craft in conformity with its prom- 
ise then given to us that passen- 
ger boats should not be sunk and 
that due warning would be given 
to all other vessels which its sub- 
marines might seek to destroy 
when no resistance was offered or 
escape attempted, and care taken 
that their crews were given at 
least a fair chance to save their 
lives in their open boats. The 
precautions taken were meagre 
and haphazard enough, as was 
proved in distressing instance 
after instance in the progress of 
the cruel and unmanly business, 
but a certain degree of restraint 
was observed. 

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Address of The President 

Final Indictment of German 
Frightfulness 

The new policy has swept 
every restriction aside. Vessels 
of every kind, whatever their flag, 
their character, their cargo, their 
destination, their errand, have 
been ruthlessly sent to the bottom 
without warning and without 
thought of help or mercy for 
those on board, the vessels of 
friendly neutrals along with those 
of belligerents. Even hospital 
ships and ships carrying relief to 
the sorely bereaved and stricken 
people of Belgium, though the lat- 
ter were provided with safe con- 
duct through the prescribed areas 
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by the German Government itself 
and were distinguished by unmis- 
takable marks of identity, have 
been sunk with the same reckless 
lack of compassion or of principle. 
I was for a little while unable 
to believe that such things would 
in fact be done by any govern- 
ment that had hitherto subscribed 
to the humane practices of civilized 
nations. International law had its 
origin in the attempt to set up 
some law which would be re- 
spected and observed upon the 
seas where no nation had right of 
dominion and where lay the free 
highways of the world. By pain- 
ful stage after stage has that law 
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Address of The President 

been built up, with meagre enough 
results indeed, after all was ac- 
complished that could be accom- 
plished, but always with a clear 
view, at least, of what the 
heart and conscience of man- 
kind demanded. 

Because it had no Weapons 
hut these 

This minimum of right the 
German Government has swept 
aside under the plea of retalia- 
tion and necessity and because 
it had no weapons which it could 
use at sea except those which 
it is impossible to employ as it 

is employing them without throw- 
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ing to the winds all scruples of 
humanity or of respect for the 
understandings that were sup- 
posed to underlie the intercourse 
of the world. I am not now 
thinking of the loss of property 
involved, immense and serious 
as that is, but only of the wanton 
and wholesale destruction of the 
lives of non-combatants, men, 
women, and children engaged in 
pursuits which have always, even 
in the darkest periods of modern 
history, been deemed innocent 
and legitimate. Property can be 
paid for; the lives of peaceful 
and innocent people cannot be. 



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Address of The President 

German Warfare is against 
Mankind 

The present German submarine 
warfare against commerce is a 
warfare against mankind. 

It is a war against all nations. 
American ships have been sunk, 
American lives taken, in ways 
which it has stirred us very deeply 
to learn of, but ships and people 
of other neutral and friendly na- 
tions have been sunk and over- 
whelmed in the waters in the 
same way. There has been no 
discrimination. The challenge is 
to all mankind. Each nation must 
decide for itself how it will meet 
it. The choice we make for our- 

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selves must be made with a 
moderation of counsel and a tem- 
perateness of judgment befitting 
our character and our motives as 
a nation. We must put excited 
feeling away. Our motive will 
not be revenge or the victorious 
assertion of the physical might of 
the nation, but only the vindica- 
tion of right, of human right, of 
which we are only a single 
champion. 

// now appears Armed 

Neutrality is impracticable 

When I addressed the Congress 

on the twenty-sixth of February 

last I thought that it would suffice 

to assert our neutral rights with 



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Address of The President 

arms, our right to use the seas 
against unlawful interference, our 
right to keep our people safe 
against unlawful violence. But 
armed neutrality, it now appears, 
is impracticable. Because sub- 
marines are in effect outlaws 
when used as the German sub- 
marine? have been used against 
merchant shipping, it is impos- 
sible to defend ships against their 
attacks as the law of nations has 
assumed that merchantmen would 
defend themselves against priva- 
teers or cruisers, visible craft giv- 
ing chase upon the open sea. 

It is common prudence, in such 
circumstances, grim necessity in- 
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deed, to endeavor to destroy them 
before they have shown their 
own intention. They must be 
dealt with upon sight, if dealt with 
at all. The German Government 
denies the right of neutrals to use 
arms at all within the areas of the 
sea which it has proscribed, even 
in the defence of rights which no 
modern publicist has ever before 
questioned their right to defend. 

The intimation is conveyed that 
the armed guards which we have 
placed on our merchant ships will 
be treated as beyond the pale of 
law and subject to be dealt with 
as pirates would be. 

Armed neutrality is ineffectual 

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Address of The President 

enough at best; in such circum- 
stances and in the face of such 
pretensions it is worse than in- 
effectual; it is likely only to 
produce what it was meant to 
prevent; it is practically certain 
to draw us into the war without 
either the rights or the effective- 
ness of belligerents. 

There is One Choice we 
cannot make 

There is one choice we cannot 
make, we are incapable of mak- 
ing. We will not choose the path 
of submissix>n and suffer the most 
sacred rights of our nation and 
our people to be ignored or vio- 
lated. The wrongs against which 
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we now array ourselves are no 
common wrongs; they cut to the 
very roots of human life. 

In Fact, Nothing less than 
War 

With a profound sense of the 
solemn and even tragical char- 
acter of the step I am taking and 
of the grave responsibilities which 
it involves, but in unhesitating 
obedience to what I deem my 
constitutional duty, I advise that 
the Congress declare the recent 
course of the Imperial German 
Government to be in fact nothing 
less than war against the govern- 
ment and people of the United 

States ; that it formally accept the 
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Address of The President 

status of belligerent which has 
thus been thrust upon it; and 
that it take immediate steps not 
only to put the country in a more 
thorough state of defence, but 
also to exert all its power and 
employ all its resources to bring 
the government of the German 
Empire to terms and end the war. 

What this will Involve is 
Clear 
What this will involve is clear. 
It will involve the utmost practi- 
cable co-operation in counsel and 
action with the governments now 
at war with Germany, and, as 
incident to that, the extension to 

those governments of the most 
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liberal financial credits in order 
that our resources may, so far ^is 
possible, be added to theirs. It 
will involve the organization and 
mobilization of all the material 
resources of the country to supply 
the materials of war and serve 
the incidental needs of the nation 
in the most abundant, and yet 
the most economical and efficient 
way possible. 

It will involve the immediate 
full equipment of the navy in all 
respects, but particularly in sup- 
plying it with the best means 
of dealing with the enemy's 
submarines. It v/ill involve the 

immediate addition to the armed 
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Address of The President 

forces of the United States al- 
ready provided for by law in case 
ofi war, at least 500,000 men, who 
should, in my opinion, be chosen 
upon the principle of universal 
liability to service, and also the 
authorization of subsequent addi- 
tional increments of equal force 
so soon as they may be needed 
and can be handled in training. 

It will involve, also, of course, 
the granting of adequate credits 
to the Government, sustained, I 
hope, so far as they can equitably 
be sustained by the present gener- 
ation, by well conceived taxation. 
I say sustained so far as may be 

equitable by taxation because it 
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seems to me that it would be 
most unwise to base the credits 
which will now be necessary en- 
tirely on money borrowed. It is 
our duty, I most respectfully 
urge, to protect our people so far 
as we may against the very seri- 
ous hardships and evils which 
would be likely to arise out of the 
infliction which would be pro- 
duced by vast loans. 

Must not interfere with 

Allied Munitions 

In carrying out the measures 

by which these things are to be 

accomplished, we should keep 

constantly in mind the wisdom of 

interfering as little as possible in 
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Address of The President 

our own preparation and in the 
equipment of our own military 
forces with the duty — for it will 
be a very practical duty — of 
supplying the nations already at 
war with Germany with the ma- 
terials which they can obtain only 
from us or by our assistance. 
They are in the field and we 
should help them in every way 
to be effective there. 

I shall take the liberty of sug- 
gesting, through the severd 
executive departments of the 
Government for the consideration 
of your committees, measures for 
the accomplishment of the several 

objects I have mentioned. I hope 
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that it will be your pleasure to 
deal with them as having bo^n 
framed after very careful thought 
by the branch of the government 
upon which the responsibility of 
conducting the war and safe- 
guarding the nation will most 
directly fall. 

While we Jo These Things 

While we do these things, these 

deeply momentous things, let us 

be very clear and make very clear 

to all the world what our motives 

and our objects are. My own 

thought has not been driven 

from its habitual and normal 

course by the unhappy events of 
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Address of The President 

the last two months, and I do 
not believe that the thought of 
the nation has been altered or 
clouded by them. 

I have exactly the same things 
in mind now that I had in mind 
when I addressed the Senate on 
the 2 2d of January last; the 
same that I had in mind when I 
addressed the Congress on the 
3d of February and on the 26th 
of February. Our object now, 
as then, is to vindicate the prin- 
ciples of peace and justice in the 
life of the world as against self- 
ish and autocratic power, and to 
set up amongst the really free 

and self-governed peoples of the 
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world such a concert of purpose 
and of action as will henceforth 
insure the observance of those 
principles. 

One Morality for Nations 
and Persons 

Neutrality is no longer feasible 
or desirable where the peace of 
the v/orld is involved and the free- 
dom of its peoples, and the men- 
ace to that peace and freedom lies 
in the existence of autocratic gov- 
ernments backed by organized 
force which is controlled wholly 
by their will, not by the will of 
their people. We have seen the 
last of neutrality in such circum- 
stances. 

[27] 



Address of The President 

We are at the beginning of an 
age in which it will be insisted 
that the same standards of con- 
duct and of responsibility for 
wrong done shall be observed 
among nations and their govern- 
ments that are observed among 
the individual citizens of civilized 
states. 

We have No Quarrel with 
the German People 

We have no quarrel with the 

German people. We have no 

feeling towards them but one of 

sympathy and friendship. It was 

not upon their impulse that their 

Government acted in entering this 
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war. It was not with their pre- 
vious knowledge or approval. ' 

It was a war determined upon 
as wars used to be determined 
upon in the old, unhappy days 
when peoples were nowhere con- 
sulted by their rulers and wars 
were provoked and waged in the 
interests of dynasties or of little 
groups of ambitious men who 
were accustomed to use their 
fellow men as pawns and tools. 

Self-governed nations do not 

fill their neighbor states with spies 

or set the course of intrigue to 

bring about some critical posture 

of affairs which will give them an 

opportunity to strike and make 
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Address of The President 

conquest. Such designs can be 
successfully worked out only 
under cover and where no one 
has the right to ask questions. 

Cunningly contrived plans of 
deception or aggression, carried, 
it may be, from generation to 
generation, can be worked out 
and kept from the light only 
within the privacy of courts or 
behind the carefully guarded con- 
fidences of a narrow and privi- 
leged class. They are happily 
impossible where public opinion 
commands and insists upon full 
information concerning all the 
nation's affairs. 

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It must be a League of 
Honor 

A steadfast concert for peace 
can never be maintained except 
by a partnership of democratic 
nations. No autocratic govern- 
ment could be trusted to keep 
faith within it or observe its 
covenants. 

It must be a league of honor, 
a partnership of opinion. In- 
trigue would eat its vitals away; 
the plottings of inner circles who 
could plan what they would and 
render account to no one would 
be a corruption seated at its very 
heart. Only free peoples can hold 

their purpose and their honor 
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Address of The President 

steady to a common end and pre- 
fer the interests of mankind to 
any narrow interest of their own. 

Here is a Fit Partner 
Does not every American feel 
that assurance has been added to 
our hope for the future peace of 
the world by the wonderful and 
heartening things that have been 
happening within the last few 
weeks in Russia? 

Russia was known by those who 
knew it best to have been always 
in fact democratic at heart, in all 
the vital habits of her thought, in 
all the intimate relationships of 

her people that spoke their nat- 
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ural instinct, their habitual atti- 
tude towards life. 

The autocracy that crowned the 
summit of her political structure, 
long as it had stood and terrible 
as was the reality of its power, 
was not in fact Russian in origin, 
character, or purpose, and now it 
has been shaken off and the great 
generous Russian people have 
been added in all their native 
majesty and might to the forces 
that are fighting for freedom in 
the world, for justice and for 
peace. Here is a fit partner for 
a League of Honor. 



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Address of The President 

Spies were here before 
the War began 

One of the things that has 
served to convince us that the 
Prussian autocracy was not and 
could never be our friend is that 
from the very outset of the pres- 
ent war it has filled our unsuspect- 
ing communities, and even our 
offices of government, with spies, 
and set criminal intrigues every- 
where afoot against our national 
unity of counsel, our peace within 
and without, our industries and 
our commerce. 

Indeed, it is now evident that 

its spies were here even before 

the war began; and it is un- 
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happily not a matter of conjecture 
but a fact proved in our courts 
of justice that the intrigues which 
have more than once come peril- 
ously near to disturbing the peace 
and dislocating the industries of 
the country have been carried on 
at the instigation, with the sup- 
port, and even under the personal 
direction of official agents of the 
Imperial Government accredited 
to the Government of the United 
States. 

Even in checking these things 
and trying to extirpate them we 
have sought to put the most gen- 
erous interpretation possible upon 

them, because we knew that their 
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Address of The President 

source lay, not in any hostile 
feeling or purpose of the German 
people towards us (who were, no 
doubt, as ignorant of them as we 
ourselves were), but only in the 
selfish designs of a Government 
that did what it pleased and 
told its people nothing. But they 
have played their part in serving 
to convince us at last that that 
Government entertains no real 
friendship for us and means to 
act against our peace and security 
at its convenience. 

For the Ultimate Peace 
of the World 

That it means to stir up en- 
emies against us at our very 
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doors the intercepted note to the 
German Minister at Mexico City 
is eloquent evidence. 

We are accepting this chal- 
lenge of hostile purpose because 
we know that in such a govern- 
ment, following such methods, we 
can never have a friend ; and that 
in the presence of its organized 
power, always lying in wait to 
accomplish we know not what 
purpose, there can be no assured 
security for the democratic gov- 
ernments of the world. 

We are now about to accept 
gage of battle v/ith this natural 
foe to liberty and shall, if neces- 
sary, spend the whole force of the 
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Address of The President 

nation to check and nullify its 

pretensions and its power. We 

are glad, now that we see the 

facts with no veil of false pretence 

about them, to fight thus for the 

ultimate peace of the world and 

for the liberation of its peoples, 

the German peoples included; for 

the rights of nations, great and 

small, and the privilege of men 

everywhere to choose their way 

of life and of obedience. The 

world must be made safe for 

democracy; its peace must be 

planted upon tested foundations 

of political liberty. 

We have no selfish ends to 

serve. We desire no conquest, 
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no dominion. We seek no in- 
demnities for ourselves, -no 
material compensation for the 
sacrifices we shall freely make. 
We are but one of the champions 
of the rights of mankind. We 
shall be satisfied when those 
rights have been made as secure 
as the faith and the freedom of 
the nations can make them. 

Just because we fight without 
rancor and without selfish object, 
seeking nothing for ourselves but 
what we shall wish to share with 
all free peoples, we shall, I feel 
confident, conduct our operations 
as belligerents without passion 

and ourselves observe with proud 
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Address of The President 

punctilio the principles of right 
and of fair play we profess to be 
fighting for. 

Will Deal with Austria later 
I have said nothing of the gov- 
ernments allied with the Imperial 
Government of Germany because 
they have not made war upon us 
or challenged us to defend our 
right and our honor. The Aus- 
tro-Hungarian Government has, 
indeed, avowed its unqualified 
indorsement and acceptance of 
the reckless, lawless submarine 
warfare adopted now without dis- 
guise by the Imperial German 

Government, and it has, therefore, 
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not been possible for this Govern- 
ment to receive Count Tarnowski, 
the Ambassador recently accred- 
ited to this Government by the 
Imperial and Royal Government 
of Austria-Hungary; but that 
Government has not actually en- 
gaged in warfare against citizens 
of the United States on the seas, 
and I take the liberty, for the 
present at least, of postponing a 
discussion of our relations with 
the authorities at Vienna. We 
enter this war only where we are 
clearly forced into it because 
there are no other means of de- 
fending our rights. 



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Address of The President 

Because we act without 
Animus 

It will be all the easier for us 
to conduct ourselves as belliger- 
ents in a high spirit of right and 
fairness because we act without 
animus, not in enmity towards a 
people or with the desire to bring 
any injury or disadvantage upon 
them, but only in armed opposi- 
tion to an irresponsible Govern- 
ment which has thrown aside all 
considerations of humanity and 
of right and is running amuck. 

We are, let me say again, 
the sincere friends of the Ger- 
man people, and shall desire 
nothing so much as the early re- 
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establishment of intimate rela- 
tions of mutual advantage be- 
tween us, however hard it may be 
for them, for the time being, to 
believe that this is spoken from 
our hearts. We have borne with 
their present government through 
all these bitter months because 
of that friendship — exercising a 
patience and forbearance which 
would otherwise have been im- 
possible. 

The Millions of German 
Birth who live among us 

We shall, happily, still have 

an opportunity to prove that 

friendship in our daily attitude 

and actions toward the millions of 
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Address of The President 

men and women of German birth 
and native sympathy who live 
amongst us and share our life, 
and we shall be proud to prove it 
towards all who are in fact loyal 
to their neighbors and to the 
Government in the hour of test. 
They are, most of them, as true 
and loyal Americans as if they 
had never known any other 
fealty or allegicince. They will 
be prompt to stand with us in 
rebuking and restraining the few 
who may be of a different mind 
and purpose. 

If There Should Be Disloyalty 

If there should be disloyalty, it 
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will be dealt with with a firm 
hand of stem repression; but, 
if it lifts its head at all, it will lift 
it only here and there and with- 
out countenance except from a 
lawless and malignant few. 

It is a distressing and oppres- 
sive duty, gentlemen of the Con- 
gress, which I have performed 
in thus addressing you. There 
are, it may be, many months of 
fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of 
us. It is a fearful thing to lead 
this great peaceful people into 
war, into the most terrible and 
disastrous of all wars, civiliza- 
tion itself seeming to be in the 

balance. But the right is more 
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Address of The President 

precious than peace, and we 
shall fight for the things which 
we have always carried nearest 
our hearts — for democracy, for 
the right of those who submit to 
authority to have a voice in their 
own governments, for the rights 
and liberties of small nations, 
for a universal dominion of right 
by such a concert of free peoples 
as shall bring peace and safety 
to all nations and make the 
world itself at last free. 

Privileged to spend her 
Blood 

To such a task we can dedicate 

our lives and our fortunes, every- 
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thing that we are and everything 
that we have, with the pride of 
those who know that the day has 
come when America is privileged 
to spend her blood and her might 
for the principles that gave her 
birth and happiness and the 
peace which she has treasured. 
God helping her, she can do no 
other. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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